The present invention relates to a float assembly and more particularly to an assembly having three float tubes for supporting a vehicle.
Various prior art float assemblies have been used to support vehicles such as a helicopter on a water surface. These assemblies include cylindrical shaped float tubes which are, typically, inflatable by a suitable reservoir of compressed air which may be controlled by the helicopter pilot.
Early float assemblies included one float tube attached to each skid of the helicopter. These floats were used for providing sufficient buoyancy to a helicopter to enable the occupants to be evacuated in the event the helicopter had to make an emergency landing on a water surface. They did not, however, provide sufficient buoyancy to permit the helicopter to be saved.
The float assembly art progressed to the point where the float device was located beneath the helicopter skid to provide clearance between the fuselage and the water surface. These floats were capable of providing sufficient flotation to the helicopter to enable the occupants as well as the helicopter to be saved in the event of an emergency landing on a water surface. These float assemblies included float tubes which were typically cigar shaped with hemispherical ends for plowing through the water. This plowing limited maneuverability of the helicopter in the water. In addition, it lacked aerodynamic quality and suffered from damage due to the helicopter continually landing on the float.
The float assemblies were subsequently moved to the upper surface of the skid to thereby reduce the possibility of damage to the float tubes on ground contact. To provide a greater fuselage to water surface clearance, these float assemblies were designed having two cylindrical float tubes joined together so their centerlines were in a horizontal plane and the two float tubes were urged together so that the surfaces intersected along a vertical line which was equidistant from the respective centers of the two cylindrical float tubes. These floats provided a conical planing type bow to reduce the plowing effect of earlier designed floats and to increase the maneuverability of the helicopter on water. The tail portions of the floats were made conical and sloped upwards towards the tail to provide clearance during low tail landings. These types of float assemblies provided maneuverability on the water and improved aerodynamic performance. They still, however, did not provide adequate fuselage to water clearance at all landing conditions and tended to permit the tail rotor to come dangerously close to the water under light or empty load conditions.